Jesus told them, “Tonight all of you will desert me.” … Peter declared, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you.” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.” “No!” Peter insisted. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And all the other disciples vowed the same. [Matthew 26:31a,33-35 (NLT)]
I think the worst thing my parents could say was that they were disappointed in me. Knowing I hadn’t lived up to their high expectations, I’d hang my head in shame as they added, “We expected far better from you.” I never wanted to disappoint them but, unfortunately, like every child, I often did.
While parents tend to envision having the perfect child—one who never disobeys, makes unwise choices, or gets a bad grade—God doesn’t operate under that delusion. Knowing us, He has realistic expectations of His fallen children. Nevertheless, while He understands that we can’t live up to His standard of perfection, God does expect us to do our best and He provides the guidance and power to do so. Even so, we’ll falter more times than we can count and, when that happens, rather than being disappointed in us, God is disappointed for us.
When they deserted the Lord that Thursday evening in Gethsemane, none of the disciples behaved much like true believers. Although the others also may have denied knowing Jesus that night, only Peter’s denials were recorded for posterity. While Jesus was being questioned, slandered, spit upon, blindfolded, and beaten, Peter was warming himself by a fire. Then the disciple who claimed to be ready to die for Jesus failed Him miserably by denying even knowing the Lord. Jesus wasn’t surprised in the disciples’ desertion and Peter’s betrayal; He expected it. In fact, He predicted it.
When Jesus appeared Easter morning, He didn’t tell the disciples how disappointed He was in them or shame them for their desertion. Instead, Jesus’ first words were words of love and reconciliation, “Shalom…peace be with you.” Then, instead of chastening them for their fear and doubt at His resurrected presence, Jesus ate with them! Rather than single out Peter and censure him for his denials, Jesus simply asked the disciple if he loved Him. Despite Peter’s previous failures, Jesus loved and forgave the man and appointed him to “feed my sheep.”
Peter’s failings didn’t define him and neither should ours. Peter denied Christ and yet he was in that room with the other disciples on Easter morning. A betrayal doesn’t have to send us away from Jesus into the depths of despair, as it did for Judas. A betrayal can bring us closer to Christ, as it did for Peter. Repentance and forgiveness turned Peter, the betrayer, into Peter, the Rock, the powerful preacher and fearless leader of the early Church!
Like Peter and the disciples, we are flawed people. As much as we want to honor and please God, there will be times we make poor choices and disappoint Him. The good news is that God never will disappoint us! Although He grieves for every one of our bad choices, He never will leave us, stop believing in us, or take His Holy Spirit from us.
When I saw a wildflower that looked like a helicopter’s rotors, I showed it to the park’s naturalist for identification. Not as impressive as Scarlet Hibiscus or as colorful as Butterfly Weed, she found the plant unworthy of name or notice and wrote it off as “just a weed!” What some people call “weeds,” I think of as wildflowers and a little research told me it was the floret of Egyptian Crowfoot Grass (Dactyloctenium aegyptium). Native to Africa and widely distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics, it is one of the most drought-resistant of grasses.
I was married fifty-seven years ago today. When I promised to love, comfort, honor, cherish, forsake all others, and to have and to hold my husband “for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health” until we parted at death, I had no idea just how bad “for worse” could get, how little money “for poorer” might be, or that sickness could mean much more than a case of the flu. I certainly never pictured us growing old with wrinkles, white hair, hearing aids, bifocals, arthritis, and the limitations that come advanced years.
Although he was a man of faith, my father was not a man of laughter, tenderness, affection, or patience. When I was a child, my understanding of fear of the Lord was much like the fear I had of my father—fear that I never could be pretty, smart, talented, or good enough to earn either his or God’s love. Try as I might, I always seemed to fall short.
Jesus told two parables about persistence. In the first, a man went to his neighbor’s home at midnight. Waking him, he asked for three loaves of bread because a traveler just arrived and he had no food for his hungry guest. Initially, the neighbor refused to open the door but, after tiring of the man’s persistent knocking, he finally gave him the bread. In the second parable, a widow kept badgering a corrupt judge with her appeals for justice against a man who has harmed her. Finally, worn down by her persistent pleas, the exasperated judge granted her request.
There are 613 commandments in the Torah/Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). But, as seen in Jesus’ interaction with the lawyer who wanted “neighbor” defined, there was room for interpretation. For example, what exactly does it mean to “honor” one’s parents? When Deuteronomy 11:18-20 says to bind “these words” to one’s hands and forehead and place them on doorposts and gates, exactly what words and how was it to be done? Work on the Sabbath is prohibited in twelve places but is the command limited to the few types of work mentioned? For that matter, what defines work?
Devotions of the Heart 